Did you know?

Plastic pollution in the ocean frequently appears as seabird guts filled with cigarette lighters and bottle caps, marine mammals entangled in fishing gear and drifting plastic bags mimicking a gelatinous meal. Last year, a study estimated that around eight million metric tons of our plastic waste enter the oceans from land each year.

Most of our waste consists of everyday items such as bottles, wrappers, straws or bags. Yet the vast majority of debris found floating far offshore are broken-down fragments smaller than your pinky fingernail, termed microplastic, accounting for about 1% of the plastic waste entering the ocean from land in a single year, estimated at 93,000 to 236,000 metric tons.